Customer-Sited Energy Storage in California and the SGIP Program: A market projection and guide to the project economics and program design behind the state’s $448 million incentive program

Utility Dive and Strategen Consulting today announced the release of their joint research report, “Customer-Sited Energy Storage in California: A Practical Guide to $448 Million of Incentives from the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP)”. Utility Dive’s first co-branded report provides a comprehensive overview of the SGIP program, outlines winning value propositions for storage under SGIP, and provides detailed market projections and competitive analysis for applicants.

On May 1, 2017, California's SGIP opened with a $448 million budget to spur the deployment of Advanced Energy Storage (AES) sited at customer locations. The Utility Dive and Strategen report forecasts between $722 million and $1.6 billion of cumulative public and private capital investment resulting from the SGIP through 2020. This amount results from the program funds, leveraging the federal investment tax credit (ITC), and private investment. Analysts forecast up to $713 million in private capital deployments for advanced energy storage projects. Pent up demand and enticing incentive levels are expected to make SGIP funding rounds extremely competitive.

The joint research report lays out a step-by-step process for storage developers to learn how to calculate their expected incentive rates, maximize their chances of an SGIP award, and optimize their energy storage facilities for greatest financial return. Synthesizing the SGIP’s handbook into 90 easy-to-digest pages, the report also saves valuable time. A free executive summary of the report is available for download.

"Storage is a critical building block in California’s efforts to build a resilient, decarbonized grid, and SGIP has been an important contributor to a thriving energy storage industry in California. We expect this to accelerate as a result of the reopening of SGIP, adding hundreds of megawatts to California’s portfolio of BTM storage and hundreds of millions of dollars to California’s economy," said Mark Higgins, chief operating officer of Strategen Consulting.

"We’re proud to put forth an in-depth guide to help storage developers capitalize on this enormous opportunity. Using our joint expertise, Utility Dive and Strategen Consulting have detailed the winning elements of smart project deployment and insider knowledge of the storage market" said Sean Griffey, CEO of Industry Dive, the company behind Utility Dive.